TopNews

Taxes

Rep. Bill Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that one of his 2015 priorities will be a highway bill – but he does not expect it to be funded by a fuel tax increase, the AP reported.

A bipartisan pair of House Representatives invoked the spirit of conservative champion Ronald Reagan to push for a fuel tax increase to revive the Highway Trust Fund. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Tom Petri, R-Wisc., called for passage of a bill to raise the tax and quoted from Reagan’s 1982 call to do the same.

Business interests, including American Trucking Associations, American Truck Dealers and the Truck Renting and Leasing Association, are pressing Congress to extend certain tax provisions before the end of the year.

The Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Interstate Highway System – all were built by men of vision, but today Congress lacks enough such people to rebuild America’s worn and aging infrastructure, said former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, calling for a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in the fuel tax.

Alabama senators Thursday approved legislation to change the way motor fuel road taxes are collected on natural gas sold in the state, which supporters say will help expand the market for alternative fuels.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., will introduce bills to raise federal fuel taxes, index them to inflation and test a vehicle-mile tax. The proposals, which Blumenauer is scheduled to discuss on Capitol Hill Wednesday, come as Congress begins to consider ways to revive funding for U.S. roads and bridges.

The House panel studying freight transportation saved the toughest for last: how to pay for it. It was a sign of the enduring paralysis over funding that the panel had Jack Schenendorf and Robert Atkinson as witnesses in its final hearing last week.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed a class action lawsuit on Oct. 8 against the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance challenging the constitutionality of certain highway taxes for all trucks using its state highways.

Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House to discourage any increase in the 12% Federal Excise Tax on the purchase of heavy-duty trucks and trailers, a measure that has been discussed as one way to raise more money for highways.

New bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress would change the way liquified natural gas is taxed as a transportation fuel, making it more equal to the diesel fuel tax by using diesel-gallon equivalents as a measure.

As lawmakers in Vermont look to raise money for road and other transportation projects, trucking could get dragged into the mix with talk of a possible diesel tax hike. One proposal in the state legislature calls for increasing the diesel tax by 2 cents per gallon this year followed by a 2-cent hike in 2014.